Myra,: The start of a galactic adventure. (Dave Travise Book 1)

by Richard Dee

  “You’ve done it,” Ria said. “Thank you so much, I didn’t have the tools and it’s been broken for so long.”

  She took it and held it in front of Evan’s arm. He pushed the stump into the prosthetic and the fingers came to life. He beamed and we saw him how he must have been.

  Evan passed us glasses of cold beer and we drank, sitting in companionable silence while the huge steaks grilled. There were bowls of salads, fresh bread and fruit, enough for about ten people.

  “Everything here is from this farm,” said Evan proudly, “even the beer; I have an automatic micro-brewery.”

  “It makes decent wine as well,” said Ria, holding up a glass of something red.

  While we ate, Evan talked of his time in the service, the beer had loosened his tongue a little, or maybe it was the more relaxed atmosphere between him and Ria.

  He told us about the Holy Wars, and his part in them. He had been a young conscript, newly married when called up and had seen active service. Although it was obvious that parts of the story he told us were missing, I got the impression that the Sprite’s arrival here had not been a completely random act. Anyhow, his wife had produced Ria, and then died when she was young.

  “I’ve never been off the planet,” said Ria wistfully, “and I’ve only been to the city a handful of times.” She had changed out of her overalls into a sarong in bright colours, and her hair was now silver and gold, shimmering as her conversation became more animated. “I always thought that I would use the Sprite to get off-planet and see the Federation, now it’s yours and I’m still stuck here. But we’ve come to an understanding,” she looked at Evan who nodded, “I’ll help you and then I’m off to the city, I’ll get a job as an engineer.”

  Evan broke in, “She used to sit in the pilot chair and dream of going to all the places she saw on the televisor; I was going to take her, but there was always another harvest, always another bill and somehow the years went.” There was regret in his voice. “After my May passed, it never seemed to be the right time. I’m sorry, Ria, but I let you down.” He stopped, almost sobbing and she put her arm around him.

  “I know, Father, and I understand.” And in a strained silence we finished our steaks.

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Next day, we started in earnest, Myra disappeared into the machinery spaces and I went to the bridge. I was looking at everything and I had the advantage that Evan didn’t; I had money to spend.

  I had Evan’s registration trans-papers and his password and for a fee was now able to log onto the type-specific pages of the hyperweb for this vessel. I used its official number to read its history.

  It was one of a batch of twenty built at the Navy yards on Prem in the last days of the Blessed. Fearing civil war they had massively increased the size of the fleet, of course that all backfired on them when the officers revolted.

  The Seeker had had an uneventful life until the day the crew had mutinied, just patrols and some scouting behind the lines. It had seen a little action, using its superior speed it was in and out before anyone could react. No mention was made of a mutiny on board; merely that it had been ‘superseded’. Evan had kept the records up at first but the entries had been become fewer as time passed; probably as his money and enthusiasm waned.

  I created a new owner’s account, now I could pay to use the web to download checklists and diagnostic software. The first thing I did was set up an automatic update on all the ship’s software; the result of this would tell me of any major problems in the ship’s computers.

  Next I downloaded the ‘Checklist for Operational Preparation’, which I could use to make sure we missed nothing. It had a separate section for Myra which I copied to the engine room workstation. It took an age to download and when it opened it had over 3000 pages. I sighed and pressed the ‘start analysis’ button.

  After a few seconds of thinking about it the screen lit up in red. ‘DO NOT START MAIN ENGINE’ it said in bold letters. ‘SOFTWARE UPDATE IN PROGRESS, 37 FLIGHT UNSERVICABLE SYSTEMS DETECTED’. As I watched, the number changed to 44.

  I called the engine room. “I’m getting the same,” said Myra. “Don’t worry, we’ll work through it.” While the update proceeded I had nothing to do so I wandered round the accommodation.

  There were cabins for ten and all the associated stores and public rooms. Even though I had never served on a Sprite, I had been on one for a look when I was a cadet and could remember a few things. All the features that I looked for were here, including a large selection of spare parts and tools in the main workshop. These would all need to be tested.

  We met up at lunchtime; the analysis was still going on, sixty-seven per cent completed according to the screen. Ria had appeared with a basket of food and we sat outside on the grass behind the barn. The sun was bright and warming under a cloudless sky of deep turquoise and flocks of birds drifted overhead as we ate.

  Ria apologised for leaving us to it, she had been busy showing the man her father had employed the workings of the farm. He was getting the hang of things and she would be able to help us soon. There was little we could do anyway until the update had finished; Myra said that it would generate a priority list for both of us, with details of the work and the parts needed. It would show what we needed to get and in what order to do the jobs. The computer had locked the main engines down until the checklist was done and all the systems were fixed. I told her about the amount of spares I had seen in the stores and her face lit up. “That’s good, we can get on and check them out, and it might save us some waiting around.”

  Lunch over, we went back to work. The update had finished and sure enough a list was displayed, it ran to seventy pages. “Meet you in the stores,” called Myra on the intercom and I set off.

  It was really cramped in the stores and we had to squeeze in close together, one thing led to another and it was just getting interesting when there was a cough. Red-faced, we disentangled to see Ria standing at the doorway. “Excuse me,” she said, trying not to laugh, “I’ve come over to help, but if you’re… busy, I’ll come back later.”

  Now we were embarrassed. “We needed to check out the spares,” Myra said.

  “It’s cramped in here,” I added. Our activities had not fazed her, with all the animals on the farm she had probably seen worse.

  “Perhaps you should put a sign up, or lock the ramp,” she suggested, she had given up trying not to laugh and we joined in.

  “Let’s get up to the mess and have coffee,” Myra suggested.

  “I can help you with the spares situation,” Ria said as we drank our coffee. “I’ve written a spares catalogue on the mainframe, you can cross reference it to the priority list and it will tell you what we need.”

  “Show me,” asked Myra and using the workstation in the mess room, Ria set up the relevant pages, her hands flying over the keys; it was obvious that she knew as much about the workings of the ship as Myra. Between them, Evan and Ria had kept the ship in as good a condition as you would have expected, given their lack of specialised facilities and money.

  “There you are,” she said triumphantly after a couple of minutes had passed. She copied the list to Myra’s diagnostic tablet, it was much shorter now. “Wow,” said Myra, “good work, we have a lot of the stuff we need right here, as long as it all works.”

  “Look,” Ria pointed to the screen, “all the spares were checked on these dates.”

  I felt left out as the two women chatted away, I was superfluous to requirements as they nodded and laughed together, basking in their mutual knowledge and a growing friendship.

  Ria gave us her views on the work and we debated when to send for parts, there were still going to be a lot of things we needed. Some of the spares we could use to get the ship running but we would need to replace them before we could be certified. Myra thought we should wait till we had enough for a full load of one of the Orca’s shuttles, I reckoned that we should set up a regular delivery of stuff as we needed it, otherwise th
ere would be so much that waiting for it would cause a delay. In the end we compromised, Griff could get the big stuff and the local yard at Brethren’s could supply the run of the mill gear. Ria said their prices were reasonable.

  As we chatted, it became clear that Ria was very well versed in the mechanics of the Sprite, and considering her admitted isolation, pretty up to speed on current affairs. Perhaps I was being particularly slow but until Myra mentioned it I never realised what she was up to.

  “I don’t think Ria is going to stay in the city,” she said. “I know she’s told Evan that but once she gets away from the farm she’ll keep going.” I had to agree with her on that. There was something different about her, the aura of a bird about to fly.

  “Who’s this Griff you keep on about,” she asked after we had been discussing a particularly expensive piece of kit. She was dubious that he could get things for us at a lower price.

  “You’d like him,” said Myra. “He’s a big man, with a big personality, he can get just about anything you care to think of, he knows everyone and they all seem to owe him a favour.”

  “Sounds interesting,” Ria replied with a polite smile.

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Myra and I had words. I wanted to rename the ship, she didn’t. “It’s bad luck,” she said, pouting. It made her look even more beautiful.

  “And the old name didn’t bring the last crew much luck did it?” was my reply. “I don’t like Seeker; it’s boring and might bring back memories somewhere.”

  She had no answer to that so she went off to sulk in the engine room. It was a silly row, ships got renamed whenever it was useful or the owners changed or for any number of reasons.

  “What’s the matter with Myra?” asked Ria. She had come over to help out and must have heard the shouting. She looked upset, her hair turned blue as I watched.

  “How does that work?” I asked. “Your hair, it’s always a different colour.”

  She laughed and produced a small box from her pocket. “This,” she waved it in front of me, “it’s a field generator, it polarizes the molecules of a special shampoo that I use. I can set it to change on a timer, or by sensing my pheromones.”

  “Where did you get something like that?”

  “It’s from New Devon, we had a man come round trying to sell us machinery and he gave me it. I think he reckoned I would make Evan spend his money.”

  “And did he?” She laughed again and the happy thoughts must have been detected by the box. The blue hair vanished, replaced by a flame red.

  “No, we just took all his samples and told him to clear off.”

  “I want to change the name,” I told her. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “And that’s why? That’s silly, change it. If it makes any difference, I want you to change it as well; it’ll keep reminding me if you leave it.” At least she understood.

  “That was my point.” Ria nodded.

  “Leave it to me, Dave. I’ll tell her.”

  We had sent Griff a list of the parts that we needed and the order we needed them in. I told him to get the best quality spares that he could. Even with the money I had there were still some things that I couldn’t afford. I really wanted a Nav system like Nancy but that was beyond me after I had got the necessities, including a spare Inverter tube.

  I hadn’t really thought about how he would send them to us, I figured that he would probably use a commercial transport so I was surprised to see one of the Orca’s shuttles sinking down toward us one morning as we walked across to the barn. We were living on the Sprite but eating at Evan’s table, a sort of peace offering.

  The shuttle landed near the barn and the ramp dropped. Behind us I heard Ria come out of the big house, alerted by the noise.

  Griff bounded down the ramp and ran towards us. He scooped Myra up and hugged her till she shouted that she couldn’t breathe. Dropping her he approached me; I was just contemplating a defensive strategy when he stopped, as if he had hit a wall. His gaze was fixed way past me. I turned.

  Ria was running towards us; her hair was orange today I noticed. It flowed and bounced as she moved. She had a long floaty dress on; the abstract pattern was dancing as she came towards us on long legs. She suddenly realised that Griff was watching her and she faltered like a startled fawn. There was a confused look on her face. Then the feminine took over and she smoothed her hair and her clothes. She walked demurely up to us.

  “Ria, this is Griff,” Myra introduced them. “Griff; Ria.”

  “Hello,” they both said at once, and then they both burst out laughing. I looked at Myra and she looked at me, realising what we were seeing. It was the same moment as ours, on the Orca.

  “Who the hell are you,” Evan shouted out, breaking the moment. He had come out as well and approached unnoticed, there was a large gun in his hands.

  “Good morning, sir,” said Griff, ever so formally. “I’m Griff, and I’ve just brought some spare parts for Dave and Myra here. And…” he paused, “a few other things for you both.”

  “I’ll get the lifter,” said Ria and raced away, decorum forgotten.

  Evan grunted, “You can get on with your chores after you’ve done that,” he shouted at her retreating back. “Harly will be along presently.” He must be the new man, Ria’s ticket away from here.

  “So how are you both?” Griff asked. “I got all your stuff here, managed to squeeze it all into one load. I knew someone who was selling a load of spares and we did a deal. And I’m sticking around for a few days to help you get it all set up.”

  We started unloading the shuttle, Griff had everything we had asked for and a few more things besides. Thoughtful things that would come in handy. He also had a pallet of stuff for Evan, some farm equipment and a spare prosthetic hand with a charger and repair kit. Myra must have sent him the details. It would be useful for when Evan was alone.

  Over the next few days Griff busied himself helping us out. The work went quickly at first; then his help became more sporadic and the reason wasn’t hard to spot, he and Ria were obviously becoming more than friendly, they would disappear together for hours. They were an item, no doubt about it. The funny thing was they were so indiscrete it was laughable, in the end I had to try and subtly tell them that Evan wasn’t really pleased. He had cornered me and asked how old Griff was. When I told him he shook his head and muttered. After that he tried to keep his eye on them. But Ria was not to be dissuaded. Her hair was never blue in those days, always red or orange.

  “I’ll have to go,” Griff said one morning, out of Ria’s hearing. “Rixon will be wondering where I’ve got to and he’s got places to be. And Evan will probably take a shot at me soon.”

  “Okay, Griff,” I laughed. “What will we do once we are all certified?”

  “Call us up and we’ll arrange a meeting. Then we can set about organising things.”

  “That’ll be great,” Myra was excited, “seeing my big brother again and getting the rest of my gear.”

  Abruptly he was gone. Ria came over looking for him and stopped short when she saw the shuttle had gone. She just stood there sobbing; Myra went to comfort her. The hair was dark blue, almost black, beautiful but sombre.

  “He’s gone without saying goodbye,” she said into Myra’s shoulder while I stood there feeling like a spare part. “I can’t be without him.” She sniffed and tried to stop her shoulders shaking.

  “Griff’s like that,” said Myra, “he hates saying goodbye; it’s nothing personal with him.”

  “I’ll call him,” she said and she did, every day. He didn’t always answer but she got used to that, she reckoned she could train him, given time.

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Now that Griff had gone we reviewed what we had to do. To our surprise Griff had actually got a lot of the work done. As ever, things just seemed to have happened even with all the time he had spent with Ria. Now he was gone we set about finishing up and with Ria’s help we soon got the work done.


  I reckoned we were ready to be certified so we called the testing station at Brethren’s and booked in. We were given permission for a one way flight.

  “What’s this then?” asked Myra, she had been sorting out the cabin and held a drive in her hand. It was the one from the real Dave, I had forgotten all about it since I had accessed the accounts, leaving it in my gear. It had been carried across to the Sprite with my spare clothes.

  “It was Dave’s but its password protected,” I explained to her. “I found it ages ago but once I got into his bank accounts I forgot all about it.”

  “Ah! I reckon I can get into it.” She plugged it into the console and tapped.

  The screen opened. “What did you do?” I asked her.

  “I used his password.” She said it as if it was the most natural thing to do.

  “How did you know his password? I only found it out after talking to Stu.”

  “It was obvious,” she said. “He was always saying it.”

  “That’s exactly what Stu said, he was always saying it. Sort of hiding it in plain sight.”

  “Or so he wouldn’t forget it,” she laughed. “I’m stone broke,” she said, “not stony broke; just stone broke.” Like Stu had said, and it had worked for his bank accounts. It seemed like everyone had known it. But had anyone else used it?

  There was a list of files stored on the drive and Myra opened one at random.

  “This proves it,” she said. “Look! Dave had all Rixon’s contacts and itineraries stored on here, he must have been copying them from Rixon’s personal directory and passing them on.”

  She scrolled through the files and directories on the drive; it looked like there had been a copy of just about everything that the Orca had got up to.

  “Look at this,” she said, pointing to a list of messages. “These messages were sent to someone else on the Orca and here are the replies.” The addresses were encrypted, a jumble of letters and numbers.